1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to an external airbag and particularly to an external airbag that is deployed so as to extend upward along the front pillars.
2. Related Art
In related art, external airbags have been used that protect a subject to be protected such as a pedestrian against the impact of a collision in case the subject to be protected collides with an automobile. In general, an external airbag is folded and housed in an automobile and is deployed by injection of deployment gas into the airbag. The deployed external airbag, when receiving a subject to be protected, is deformed depending on the pressure from the subject, and thus the collision energy of the subject is absorbable by the external airbag. External airbags are in practical use which are each deployed along, for instance, front pillars which are formed solidly in an automobile. Because a subject to be protected may collide with the front pillars in various directions and speeds, an external airbag adapted to the collision is called for.
Thus, as a technique for protecting a subject to be protected involved in a collision with a high speed, for instance, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. 2011-213142 proposes an airbag device in which a door portion formed in a cover member has a front door portion and an inner door portion, the front door portion being disposed forwardly of a mirror body to be opened so that the inner edge side faces the outside, the inner door portion being disposed inwardly of the mirror body to be opened so that the front edge side faces the rear side. In the airbag device, at the time of deployment of the airbag, the bag body is made to project quickly through an opening for projection, which is formed by opening the front door portion and the inner door portion, and thus the subject to be protected may be protected by deploying the airbag before the subject collides with a front pillar.